New Vision Mercedes Maybach Gets Official | PHOTOS

Mercedes Benz has unveiled their new Vision Mercedes Maybach at Auto China 2018 in Beijing, the car is a crossover of a high-end sedan and a high-end SUV.

The Vision Mercedes Maybach is a concept car and it is an EV which is powered by four compact permanent-magnet synchronous motors and comes with around 750 horsepower (550 kW).

“The Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury is a totally new archetype of a kind never seen before,” says Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer at Daimler AG. “Our concept combines the DNA of an SUV with that of a sedan to produce an ultra- modern SUV of three-box design,” says Wagener. “With sensual and pure sophistication, we have created a timeless vehicle that underscores the position of Mercedes-Maybach as the ultimate luxury brand.”

The concept vehicle not only embodies the Mercedes-Maybach design language, it also reflects the traditional brand values while continuing the successful Mercedes-Maybach story. True to the principle of creating “the very best from the very best,” Mercedes-Maybach stands for the ultimate in luxury while uniting the perfection of Mercedes-Benz with the exclusivity of Maybach.

You can find out more details about the new Vision Mercedes Maybach over at Mercedes Benz at the link below.

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Genoa Bridge Collapse: At Least 20 killed, Italian Official Says

Rescuers were continuing to work in extreme conditions after a bridge collapsed in the northern Italian city of Genoa, killing at least 20 people and injuring 16.

In what witnesses described as an “apocalypse”, an 80-metre section of the Morandi Bridge on the A10 motorway came down in an industrial area of the port city during a sudden and violent storm at about 11.30am on Tuesday.

The death toll was given on Tuesday evening by Luigi D’Angelo, head of the emergency unit at the civil protection service. At least 16 people were injured, five seriously, he added.

“These are the confirmed figures we have right now, but unfortunately the number is likely to rise,” he told a press conference in Genoa. D’Angelo said the cause of the collapse should be known “within the next few hours”.

About 30 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were on the affected section of the bridge when it fell 100 metres, mostly on to rail tracks, the fire service said.

Rescuers compared the conditions to the aftermath of an earthquake, as sniffer dogs searched through the rubble and heavy equipment was moved in to lift pieces of the bridge. Heavy rain also made conditions more challenging.

Aerial footage showed that the falling structure narrowly missed houses and other buildings as the bridge collapsed over a river.

The disaster occurred on a major artery to the Italian Riviera and to France’s southern coast. Traffic would have been heavier than usual as many Italians were travelling to beaches or mountains on the eve of a public holiday, Ferragosto.

“The scene is apocalyptic, like a bomb had hit the bridge,” Matteo Pucciarelli, a journalist for La Repubblica who lives in Genoa, told the Guardian. “There are about 200 rescuers working continuously. People are in shock, it’s a very important arterial road that connects Lombardy and Piedmont with Liguria.”

Davide Ricci, who had been travelling south, told La Stampa: “The debris landed about 20 metres from my car. First the central pillar crumbled and then everything else came down.”

Matteo Pierami drove across the bridge with his wife and child, aged two months, almost an hour before it collapsed. The family had been making their way from Lucca, in Tuscany, to the Ligurian town of Imperia. A couple of friends and their baby had been travelling in another car.

“I’ve had some time to calm down and am now trying to understand what happened, but my wife and our friends are very shocked,” Pierami said.

“We didn’t hear or see anything, but after passing the bridge stopped at an Autogrill [roadside restaurant], and started to receive calls from family.”

Pierami, an engineer, had driven over the bridge many times before. “There was lots of traffic; there is always a lot of traffic there.”

The Italian transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, immediately blamed the collapse on poor infrastructure maintenance and pledged that those responsible “would pay”. The minister, from the Five Star Movement, was rebuked by the opposition for using “political propaganda” so soon after the tragedy.

Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister, arrived in Genoa on Tuesday night and was expected to be joined later by his deputy, Luigi Di Maio.

President Sergio Mattarella expressed his condolences in a statement while stressing that Italians should be guaranteed the right “to modern and efficient infrastructure that accompanies everyday life”.

“Now is the time for a common commitment towards dealing with the emergency, assisting the injured and supporting those hit by the pain,” he added. “Then a serious investigation into the cause of what happened must follow. No authority can evade an exercise of full responsibility.”

The Morandi Bridge, which was inaugurated in 1967, is 90-metres high and just over 1km long. Restructuring work on the bridge was carried out in 2016. The highway operator said work to strengthen the road foundations of the bridge was being carried out at the time of the collapse, and the bridge was constantly monitored.

Andrea Montefusco, an engineering expert at Luiss University in Rome, said: “It’s difficult to make any serious hypothesis right now. Some people are saying maybe lightning could have struck a cable on the bridge, but at this moment it’s too early to say anything about the cause.”

Montefusco, who grew up in Genoa, added: “It [the bridge] was a sort of jewel in Italian engineering because at that time it was built with new engineering techniques. I used to enjoy passing over the bridge as a child, it was a novelty.”

About 12 bridges and overpasses have collapsed in Italy since 2004, killing seven people between them. In early 2015 a €13m viaduct in Palermo collapsed within days of opening. Poor structural maintenance was identified as the cause in most of the cases.

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I’m Sorry : Menzgold CEO begs BoG

Nana Appiah Mensah, CEO of Menzgold Company Limited has rendered an unqualified apology to the Bank of Ghana for his rude response to the banking regulator following the issuance of a warning to his company to stop its deposit-taking operations.

The BoG on Tuesday, 7 August 2018, issued its fourth public notice that it is in discussions with relevant regulatory authorities to sanction Menzgold Company Limited for engaging in “solicitation, receipt of money or investment and the payment of dividends or returns to its clients” even though it does not have a licence to do so.

The BoG, in a public notice signed by Mrs Caroline Otoo, Secretary to Governor Dr Ernest Addison, said in spite of several cautions to Menzgold Ghana Company Limited to desist from the act, it persists in its deposit-taking activity in breach of section 6(1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

The central bank cautioned the general public that anyone who transacts “any of the above-mentioned businesses with Menzgold Ghana Company Limited does so at his or her own risk”, adding that the Bank of Ghana will not be liable in the event of loss of investments of deposits.

But Menzgold in a statement described the BoG’s announcement as “unfortunate and disparaging” and insisted it neither takes deposits from customers nor does any deposit-taking business in Ghana.

“Our activities are not within the scope of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions, Act, 2016, Act 930. It, therefore, cannot be said that we are in breach of the Act,” the statement said.

Mr Appiah Mensah himself tweeted describing the BoG warning as the “joke” of the day and accused the bank of using Menzgold as a cover-up for collapsing some five local banks.

Last week Wednesday, barely a day after the BoG warning, there were reports that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) had sent an invitation to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah.

But in a U-turn, Mr Appiah Mensah tweeted on Tuesday, 14 August that: “Owing to the fallible nature of man, I sincerely apologise for my initial reaction to the Bank of Ghana press release. We’ve engaged & are cooperating with the BoG and other state agencies, to cordially resolve in the interest of our beloved Republic of Ghana.#GhanaShallProsper”.

Owing to the fallible nature of man, i sincerely apologise for my initial reaction to the Bank of Ghana press release. We've engaged & are cooperating with the BoG and other state agencies, to cordially resolve in the interest of our beloved Republic of Ghana.#GhanaShallProsperpic.twitter.com/4m0DpcG6OJ

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The European country of Italy has been thrown into a state of mourning this day as a motorway bridge collapse has left close to a dozen dead and others injured.

The bridge collapse occurred in the port city of Genoa Tuesday morning. According to the Associated Press, quoting Italian state tv, 11 people have been confirmed dead so far with five people injured and in critical condition.

The collapse occurred on the bridge, one of the busiest in the country which connects Italy to France and to other vacation resorts.

It collapsed as one of its main support towers crumbled as many cars were driving on it, plunging cars and their occupants close to 100 meters to the ground. Emergency personnel working with sniffer dogs are still sifting through the wreckage to rescue more people.

Officials say the collapse involved as many as 20 cars — including trucks — and the collapsed portion measures 80 meters in length.